Kickstarter is a popular place for wild ideas to gain some traction, but sometimes an idea clicks with so many people it's possible to wonder why no one thought of it before. Such is the case with the Pebble digital wristwatch.

It uses an e-paper display, similar to the screen on the Amazon Kindle, and connects to the iPhone (and Android devices) via Bluetooth. Pebble uses vibrating alerts to tell the wearer of incoming calls, emails, calendar alerts, Facebook and Twitter messages, weather alerts and more. It also has an extensive SDK for developers and its own "Pebble watchapp store". It will also be waterproof enough to swim with, but it will not be a dive watch.

The company behind the watch even has experience with smart watches. Pebble has been making a BlackBerry-compatible watch called the inPulse, and is a graduate of the Y Combinator startup incubator. It has now received pledges for $3.8 million from 26,500 backers on Kickstarter for a watch that will retail somewhere around $150 when it goes on sale this fall.

An article by Bloomberg notes that Kickstarter wasn't Pebble's first choice for raising funds. He tried to raise money via traditional venture capital firms, but "few investors were interested in betting on a hardware startup, or dealing with the headaches that often come with manufacturing goods." However, Kickstarter seems to have worked out very well. The watch is the most funded Kickstarter project ever.

Pebble told MacRumors that it's treating Kickstarter as a discounted pre-order mechanism, and once the funding period closes in a month it will continue taking orders on its website. US buyers can preorder a Jet Black Pebble watch via Kickstarter for $115, while foreign buyers will pay slightly more to cover shipping.

Nice idea. But with Bluetooth on all the time I think you could safely say goodbye to your battery.

I have bluetooth on all the time (paired to my headset). Has barely impacted battery life (I'd say 2-3% thru the whole day). I would of thought that this watch would use the BT 4.0 built-in to the 4S which would draw even less power.

I have bluetooth on all the time (paired to my headset). Has barely impacted battery life (I'd say 2-3% thru the whole day). I would of thought that this watch would use the BT 4.0 built-in to the 4S which would draw even less power.

If you need to stay on top of things, Pebble can help with vibrating notifications, messages and alerts. Dismiss a notification with a shake of your wrist. Don't worry, it's easy to disable all notifications.

Incoming Caller ID
Email (Gmail or any IMAP email account)
Calendar Alerts
Facebook Messages
Twitter
Weather Alerts
Silent vibrating alarm and timer
Android users can also receive Text Messages (SMS) on their Pebble. Unfortunately iPhone does not expose this data. Have any suggestions for other notification types? Leave us a message in the comments!

Want your watch to tell you when your next bus is leaving? Maybe you're jonesing to see your compile status or recent github commits.. Think push notifications, directly to your watch using the data connection on your phone. Want to check-in on your watch, or create an app that can monitor your sleep? Pebble can send data from the accelerometer and buttons back up to the internet.

Pebble can receive simple alerts and notifications from if this then that (ifttt.com) or our web-facing RESTful endpoint. More adventurous developers can use the Pebble SDK, with its Arduino-like abstractions and simple C structure, to gain full control of the watch. Multiple apps can run on Pebble, along side watchfaces and regular notifications.

Pebble connects by Bluetooth to your iPhone or Android device. Setting up Pebble is as easy as downloading the Pebble app onto your phone. All software updates are wirelessly transmitted to your Pebble.

Compatibility

iPhone 3GS, 4, 4S running iOS 5 or any iPod Touch with iOS 5.
Android devices running OS 2.3 and up. Works great with Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich)!
Unfortunately Pebble does not work with Blackberry, Windows Phone 7, or Palm phones at this time.

Orbiting this at a distance of roughly ninety-eight million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet whose ape-descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.

hahaha, someone voted my post down already? What you mad it doesn't have a fruit logo on it or something?
The iOS SMS thing is also because of Apple, not the Pebble team. Apple won't let you have access for SMS like Android will. Maybe in iOS 6 but I doubt it. Really don't know what Apple has against products like this being able to alert you to an SMS.

I was ready to pledge until I seen the text message isn't compatible with iPhone! Gutted. That was my main reason for thinking about it.

I'll wait until that's sorted, if it can be.

text notification is supported. iphone doesn't support sending the actual text. very few phones support that.

and you will notice the battery drop on your iphone. I use to use a Bodybug to watch my calories and it connected to my iphone via bluetooth and it was very noticable when it was connected from when it wasn't.